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Heru lowers herself, wing tips brushing the ground. Leaf climbs up first, naturally, leaving me with the less-than-glamorous task of scrambling onto her back. Heru growls softly, a vibration that shakes the air. Careful, little one; don’t embarrass yourself.
“I’m not embarrassed,” I say, although the angle of my legs dangling over the side of her back and my hands gripping her neck for dear life suggests otherwise.
Leaf wraps his arms around me, leaning forward so that his warmth presses against my back. The sudden contact has me stiffening, and I remind myself, again, that human body temperature is vastly overrated. He’s just warm. Very, very warm. Enough to make the chill of the wind feel like a mild breeze.
“Ready?” Leaf asks cheerfully.
“Absolutely not,” I reply, because honesty is my strongest trait.
Heru launches with a powerful beat of her wings, and suddenly the ground drops away, the trees shrink, and the wind is a living thing that tries to steal my breath. Leaf murmurs something encouraging behind me, and the combination of his voice and body heat is… disarming.
And I’m rarely without my daggers.
Minutes pass, and the landscape blurs past between wingbeats.
“You’re quiet,” Leaf observes. “Usually, you have something sarcastic ready.”
“I’m processing how much I regret climbing onto a flying monster,” I say. My teeth chatter from sheer adrenaline, like the first time I played Solarball or jumped off the precariously designed rope swing. My whole body twitches, and I squeeze my legs tightly around Heru to stop the incessant clattering of my limbs.
Heru lets out a squawk that sounds suspiciously like a groan. Must you chatter so?
“I think she likes you,” Leaf says, nudging my shoulder lightly.
“I think she’s mentally preparing to murder me mid-air,” I reply. “And I wouldn’t blame her.”
Leaf laughs, a sound that somehow doesn’t get carried off entirely by the wind. “I like your odds. You’re very resilient, likely would survive a fall. Probably lucky enough to fall into a tree, roll down, then navigate your way back. I can respect that.”
“I’ll add that to my resume,” I mutter.
Heru groans again, a low, rumbling sound that vibrates through her enormous chest. Oh, skies, you two are insufferable. I cannot believe I’m the vessel for this nonsense.
The hours stretch out. The wind bites, clouds scatter, and Heru’s wings beat with steady, almost majestic precision. Leaf keeps talking, of course. Pointing out cloud formations, pretending to see dragons and donuts and “Oh look, it’s an extremely attractive prince.” At the last comment, I actually snap my head to the side to see the cloud in question only to find Leaf’s pointed finger hooked toward himself, mouth tilted up on one side in a charming fucking smirk.
Unable to stop the chesty laugh currently breaking free, I lean back into Leaf. Our difference in height is staggering as we sit, causing me to look up at him. Tears start leaking out of my eyes between fits of laughter like the traitorous little bitches they are.
The upside-down, perplexed Leaf only makes me laugh harder.
He joins in, deep and resonant. “What, is it so hard to picture?”
“The prince part, sure. The handsome part…”
“Hey!” He nudges into my back playfully, except he doesn’t move back. “When you’ve had a couple glasses of wine, you seem to think I look good.”
“Okay, if you are talking about that one time at Anita’s—”
“Then there was that one time you seemed impressed with me after my Solarball match.”
I sputter out an ugly sound, fresh out of ideas. Honestly, he has a point. Leaf is handsome.
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
Leaf is handsome.
I look up, leaning into the broad chest behind me only to find warm brown eyes that I’ve known for years staring back. His chest expands with a sharp inhale.
My lips part because suddenly, I’m short of breath.
His eyes flick to my mouth and back up again. A million what-ifs seem to linger in that moment, like we both realize that we are on the precipice of something grand. Ten toes over the edge of a massive cliff, waiting for one strong gust of wind to push us over.
